Technological Development

OpenAI plans to nearly double its workforce to 8,000 employees by the end of 2026, focusing on product development, engineering, research, sales, and technical support roles. The move follows a major funding round valuing the company at $840 billion and comes amid rising competition from Google and other AI firms.

Jensen Huang is pushing back against fears that artificial intelligence will wipe out jobs, arguing instead that the technology could generate millions of new roles as companies race to build the infrastructure needed to power the AI era.

Samsung has unveiled the Galaxy S26 lineup, marketing it as the world’s first “agentic AI phone,” a device designed not just to answer prompts but to execute multi-step actions across apps on a user’s behalf.

Amazon is planning to lay off about 14,000 corporate employees next week as part of a wider plan to cut around 30,000 office jobs. The company says the move aims to reduce bureaucracy and focus more on AI, automation, and strategic growth areas.

After burning $70 billion on virtual worlds, Meta signals a dramatic retreat from the metaverse as artificial intelligence takes over the company’s future.

OpenAI is combining teams to focus on audio AI and plans to launch a screenless device in about a year. The new model will sound more natural, handle conversations like a human, and reflects a wider industry shift toward voice-first technology.

SoftBank has transferred a final $22 billion to OpenAI, completing its $41 billion investment and securing around 11% ownership in the AI company. The funding will support OpenAI’s massive infrastructure plans, including partnerships with Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, and the $500 billion Stargate project with Oracle.

Meta is purchasing Singapore-based AI startup company Manus for more than US$2 billion, marking one of the tech giants' most significant AI-focused purchases to date.

Nvidia has announced a $20 billion acquisition of Groq’s core assets, a landmark move that strengthens its already commanding position in the artificial intelligence chip market and reshapes the competitive landscape for AI infrastructure.

Meta is developing two proprietary AI models, Mango for image and video generation and Avocado for text and reasoning, expected to launch in the first half of 2026. The company created Meta Superintelligence Labs, hired over 50 AI specialists, and shifted away from its Llama open-source models to compete with Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s AI tools.